Normal Days
by Cantella
Summary: Sometimes it takes a little bit of this and that to get things going, and a little more to close the distance. Ryoji/Minato. REWRITTEN!


**NOTE: This fic has been rewritten! Some extra things have been added and re-worded to sound a little more decent than the previous version. Thanks for reading!**

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It started out as just an ordinary day. For Minato, anyway. He took the monorail to school, attended class, went for lunch only to be bombarded with after-school event enquiries from 'friends', all of which he declined due to wanting some time to himself, went back to class a little more stressed than he was before and resorted to putting in his best efforts into staying awake long enough for the bell to ring. His folded arms cradled his suddenly-heavy head as he stared blearily at the clock ticking away, some part at the back of his head thinking of the consequences of not entertaining any of his Social Links today.

The clock ticked, mere seconds to the end of this mindless lecture. The bluenette briefly thought of how clocks in classrooms were similar to time bombs; ticking away so painfully slow, the little red hand moving clockwise as if it need _so much energy_ to do so. It was such a small, mediocre object, yet it kept a horde of madness from unfolding. It was amazing, in a way.

Minato was beginning to question just how tired he really was to find a _clock_ amazing when, thankfully, the bell rang. Class representatives dutifully called for the students to stand and bow, waiting for the teacher to leave to start packing their bags. People were already pouring out of their classrooms, the more eager already out the door. The hallways bustled with excitement on places to go, people to meet, and things to do; goodness, there was suddenly so much to do. Minato, on the other hand, had no such plans today, and was one of the few that walked alone, headphones on, as per usual.

"Minato!"

Oh, well, not anymore, apparently.

Ryoji jogged up to him, Junpei not far behind. Minato stopped and waited for them to catch up, not bothering to take his headphones off. The yellow scarved teen grinned at him excitedly, and the bluenette simply raised a questioning eyebrow in return, expecting some sort of explanation. Seeing this, Ryoji cut to the chase, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly "Um, Junpei and I were thinking of trying out that new café over at Paulownia. I was wondering if you wanted to join us."

He pondered on whether he should go. He had already turned down all other after-school events in order to give himself some time to breathe, but hanging out with these two never felt particularly challenging. 'Challenging', in a sense that he had to calculate each word and every action he did cautiously, having to hide his true feelings in order to please those around him. Junpei and Ryoji weren't like that. In fact, spending time with them could prove to be a form of relaxation.

Minato nodded, accepting the invitation.

Ryoji grinned, while Junpei just looked on with a smug smile. Junpei may appear dim, but he can be sharp at times, though usually this only applies for non-educational topics. He's seen how Ryoji stares at Minato, so mesmerized and longing compared to that of the girls he gawks at on a daily basis. Junpei first began to be suspicious of this special affection to the bluenette when Ryoji cancelled a babe hunt with him to go play the crane game at the arcade with-who else-Minato. And Junpei knew for a fact that Ryoji wouldn't just drop a chance to score with a gorgeous female for something as mediocre and _lame_ as playing-of call things- a crane game.

He had long come to the conclusion that yes, his good friend Ryoji did in fact have a blossoming affection for the slightly shorter bluenette. He had no problem with the idea of his two closest friends being together. In fact, he found the idea rather endearing. And he knew Ryoji thought so too.

It just annoyed him how much the scarved teen refused to admit it.

"Hey Junpei, something on your mind?" Ryoji asked, adjusting his yellow scarf around his shoulders. The three of them were walking towards Paulownia Mall, slowly but steadily, unlike the hustle and bustle of students who headed in the same direction. Junpei grinned, retorting in a whisper so as to not have Minato eavesdropping (not like he can, with his headphones blasting music like there was no tomorrow, but still) "No, but I know _someone_ who does."

Ryoji frowned.

They arrived at the café, which was surprisingly not as crowded as they anticipated it to be. It was quaint; it had a simple, minimalistic design, with a white and blue theme. Couches were put off to one side as proper chairs and tables were placed near the main counter. Minato walked in first, surveying the café with a small glimmer of interest before he eagerly made his way to the counter, hungry as he always was. Ryoji looked around, scoping for chicks along with Junpei while Minato proceeded to scope for items to feed his black hole of a stomach with.

Ryoji, after checking Junpei to see if he was paying attention, stole a glance at the preoccupied bluenette. The tall, blue-haired boy was still engrossed in deciding what he wanted to get, chewing at his lip as he thought of his choices. Ryoji inwardly chuckled when he saw Minato's eyes brighten at a particular item on the menu, though he was far too preoccupied with watching Minato to notice what he was eyeing at. Minato, as he had found out early on, was simply _adorable_ when he took food so seriously. The same endearment applied to when he was actually eating, though of course, he'd never tell anyone _that_.

He turned back to Junpei, who surprisingly stopped gawking at what he supposed was a gorgeous brunette across the room and was, instead, grinning at him from ear to ear. And the scarved teen was pretty damn sure the grin had nothing to do with the girl.

He looked back at Minato, only to find that, while he was still deciding on what to order, the cashier at the counter proceeded to stare at him. This was to be expected, of course, because this was _Minato_ we're talking about. Quiet, calm, smooth-talker pretty boy Minato, but that didn't mean the beauty-marked teen simply shrugged off the ogling employee. Oh no.

Ryoji didn't even realize he was seething until he heard Junpei's poorly hidden giggles.

Minato turned around just in time for Ryoji to regain what was left of his composure, not batting an eyelid. "You guys getting anything?" he asked as Junpei practically skipped over, Ryoji steadily following after, as if trying to feign indifference though he really didn't want to come across as eager to step into Minato's personal space.

"Minato, my man, are you treating us, by any chance?" Junpei grinned, throwing a casual arm around the smaller boy's shoulder. "C'mon, for your dear friend and _excellent_ comrade Junpei-?" he drawled out, an edge of his mouth twitching upwards. The bluenette looked at him, slightly amused but still indifferent overall.

"No."

"….I thought you'd say that." He sighed, muttering _'stingy-ass leader'_ under his breath as he retracted his arm from the bluenette. Junpei looked over to Ryoji and immediately felt a sense of triumph when he found that Ryoji had the most silent, furious expression he'd ever seen. It only fueled whatever evidence he had of Ryoji's little crush. Pretending he hadn't seen it, he proceeded to order his coffee from the counter. Black, because that's how men had their coffee; according to him, anyway. Ryoji, on the other hand, ordered his green tea ice blended while shooting the cashier a warning look. The cashier raised a questioning eyebrow at him, but was missed as Ryoji quickly looked away.

"What are you getting? I thought you were hungry." _like you always are_, he wanted to add, but Junpei left his question at that. Minato shrugged, "You two were taking a while, so I ordered before you did."

After paying, the three sat down at a coffee table, Junpei making sure he sat as far away from Minato as possible. Junpei and Ryoji started talking, something about a hot girl at school while Minato just switched track after track on his mp3. It may be considered rude to have his headphones on with company, but they were all used to it by now. So much so that it was weird for all of them when they didn't see those familiar round-shaped clip on headphones around his neck, which didn't happen that often, mind you.

Their drinks arrived, and Ryoji and Junpei gaped as Minato accepted a huge cup of chocolate ice blended, with so much whipped cream it looked like it would fall off any second if he didn't do anything about it. A small part of the cream dripped onto Minato's hand as he held it, and Ryoji suddenly imagined Minato licking the sides of it with that cute little tongue of his, some of the whipped cream ending up on his face as he licked. However his fantasy was wholly destroyed when Minato, sadly, had enough sense to ask a waitress to fetch him a spoon.

The spoon was a lot worse, actually.

Ryoji tried to stop himself from staring, mostly because Junpei was sniggering so much the whole chair he sat on was shaking, but he couldn't. He just couldn't. How could he, when the one male he deemed prettier than any girl he'd met was in front of him, slowly and seductively licking a spoon full of whipped cream? And the bluenette didn't even seem to notice what he was doing; because to him, doing things like cleaning off a spoon of cream was completely practical. Even when there was a gigantic cup full of it in front of him.

Minato looked up at him suddenly, as if suddenly aware of his surroundings, then looked down at his drink. He put the spoon down and held the cup out to him.

"Want some?"

Ryoji flushed slightly, embarrassed that he'd been caught staring, though for the wrong reason. Minato blinked at the pause, registering it as hesitation and quirked the edge of his mouth upwards in what he hoped would assure the scarved teen.

"It's okay, I didn't drink it yet. Just the whipped cream."

Ryoji wanted to snort at that; as if he was the type to be picky about sharing drinks! Sure, he was a little bit of a neat freak, but sharing food and such with people was never a problem. Hell, even if he did have a bit of an obsessive-compulsive disorder, he'd probably jump at the chance to have even a little bit of shared contact with the lovely bluenette.

But for the sake of self-control, "Um…No thanks. I'm good." He finally replied, twitching his lips into a smile to make it more believable; because he knew that was a lie. He wasn't good. He wanted some. He wanted to leave some sort of trace of himself on that cup and relish in the fact that until he was finished with it, Minato would be indirectly kissing him, again and again, over and over like he'd always wanted.

You can't always get what you want, he supposed.

Minato blinked and shrugged indifferently, taking the straw to his lips, only to frown. He took the straw away and stared at his drink, eyebrows furrowed.

"…..It won't come up." He frowned some more, stabbing into the frozen cold chunk of chocolate ice with his straw and Ryoji couldn't help but laugh at how cute he was, taking simple things like that so seriously. "Blow into it," he suggested, ignoring Junpei coughing into his coffee, "There's probably something in the straw keeping it from coming up."

Minato contemplated this for a few seconds. Deeming it a reasonable suggestion, he brought the straw to his lips again, blowing into it as hard as he can. Ryoji grinned, happy that the other took his suggestion and watched him, only to be shocked out of his mind when the excess whipped cream exploded onto Minato's face, his eyes shut tight so as to not let any get into them. Junpei gaped.

Ryoji opened his eyes (for some reason he followed the same instincts Minato did) and, for a moment, considered the possibility that there was an atomic bomb in Minato's drink, which exploded, which killed him, and sent him to heaven because he could not fathom how anything he's seeing at this moment can be considered reality.

Minato had large blobs of melting whipped cream all over his face; his cheeks, his nose, his lips…There were also some in his hair, the melting of the whipped cream resulting in having some parts of his hair getting wet and tousled. And his clothes too, were not given any mercy as they were stained with the white cream.

Minato, who rarely showed any blatant emotion, flushed red in embarrassment and hurriedly reached for the serviettes, wiping off the cream he had on his face. Junpei was laughing hysterically, whether it was because of Minato's embarrassed expression or Ryoji's poorly disguised arousal, he didn't know. And personally didn't care.

The cream covered schoolboy took off his headphones, careful to check for any cream on them before excusing himself to go to the restrooms. Right after he closed the door to said room, Junpei patted Ryoji on the shoulder and gave him the most triumphant expression ever, though to Ryoji that just made him look more like a moron than usual, as much as he liked Junpei.

"Bet you can't resist him now, huh?" Ryoji pursed his lips moodily, taking up his drink and twirling the straw, "….I have no idea what you're talking about." He replied, defiance in his tone further exaggerating his nose in the air, as if he was a posh Englishman that denied an oh-so-very true notion he often saw in movies.

"Oh come _on_, Ryoji! He basically just imitated a blowjob-which you told him to blow into, which, by the way, was a nice touch." He lightly smacked his shoulder, grinning like he'd just won the lottery (which might as well have been the case), "He's practically _begging_ you to screw him into a wall." Ryoji frowned at him, whether for the lewd comment or for the idea of actually _wanting_ the bluenette, he wasn't sure himself, "…Or a bed. Or couch or _something_! " Junpei exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air. "I don't care what you screw him into, just do it! I know you want to!" Ryoji was glad not many people were in the café that day, or it wouldn't just be the tips of his ears burning red.

"What I want doesn't matter, Junpei." He sighed, staring into his cup of green slush, "It's obvious he only thinks of me as a friend. I mean, I've seen him with guys like Kenji and Sanada sometimes and it's pretty much the same as when he's with me." He grimaced, gripping his cup tighter, "And he's got the entire school wanting him; maybe even the entire town. Why would he want me?" Junpei took off his hat, scratching the back of his head as he sighed, a bit of a crooked smile lingering on his lips.

"Mind if I ask a question?" Ryoji snorted, "That's already a question, but yeah, sure. Shoot." Junpei leaned back into his chair, his smile growing bigger, more smug.

"Why would you want _him_, when you have the entire school after _you_?"

Ryoji didn't expect that to barrel out at him. He sat quietly for a while, setting his drink on the table as he mulled it over. He didn't get much time, however, as Minato came out of the restroom, fully clean from the whipped cream incident moments before. He bent down to pick up his bookbag, not looking at anything but his hands, "….I have to go back now. I've got…homework to do. Thanks for bringing me here." And proceeded to walk out of the café, bag in hand, already getting his headphones out.

Ryoji didn't know what came over him when he saw the bluenette walk away from the café, farther and farther. He felt like he had a revelation of sorts, and watching Minato walk away felt as if every step he took was a step away from what he wanted, the distance he wanted so very much to lessen. He stood abruptly, making Junpei flinch at the sudden action.

"Junpei, I'm sorry, I'm going to…" he trailed off, his sentence never finishing as he rushed out the door, vaguely hearing Junpei's shouts of encouragement and wooping and he smiled.

It didn't take long to catch up to him; the boy was taking his time walking back, his headphones on with music blasting through them. Ryoji panted, still, because that little rush of energy was…unexpected.

He tapped the blunette boy on the shoulder, swallowing as he turned to look at him, frantic, panicked thoughts running through his head.

"Where's Junpei?" Could he really do this? "….Ryoji?" This is his first time ever feeling this way about somebody; what if he screwed up? "Ryoji? Are you feeling okay?" Minato reached out, probably to touch his forehead to feel for a fever of some sort, only to have his wrist captured, Ryoji's fingers curling around the thin limb. He smiled.

"I'm feeling absolutely fine."

And he closed the distance.


End file.
